


mirror mirror

by rudimentaryflair



Series: AELDWS 2019 [4]
Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Don't copy to another site, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2019-08-01
Packaged: 2020-07-28 11:47:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20063509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rudimentaryflair/pseuds/rudimentaryflair
Summary: “We all could go insane with just one bad day.”





	mirror mirror

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Week 4 of the AELDWS 2019 challenge.
> 
> Prompt: Paranoid  
Genre: Anadiplosis  
Word Count: 350
> 
> (Betaed by the wonderful [Rabbit](https://book-rabbit.tumblr.com))

Eames is in the middle of fixing a forge when the tapping begins.

It’s quiet at first, barely noticeable behind the drone of his thoughts. He turns around; there’s no one else in the dream with him. Weird, he thinks. Perhaps something topside was causing it.

The sound crescendos into a dull thudding, like someone banging their fist against a windowpane. It’s coming from right in front of him.

Eames freezes and looks back in the mirror, eyes wide and hands hovering in midair. 

He sees the little things first. Little things, like how his smile is wider than how he feels, the odd line to his shoulders, the positioning of his body just a little out of place.

Tap tap. Tap tap. His reflection raps its knuckles on the glass, leaning against the edge where the mirror ends. For a second, they just stare at each other.

Eames inches closer. Fear through ignorance, ignorance through caution. What are you, he asks, a little curious and a lot wary. Where did you come from?

His reflection smiles, white and jagged. It taps the glass once, then twice, deliberate and foreboding. 

Even though Eames can’t hear it, the message is clear.  _ Let me out. _

Eames wakes up, the cut of its grin is still seared into his mind. The bed moves and Arthur’s hands are immediately on his face, smoothing down his hair. 

Jesus, he says. Jesus Christ, are you okay?

Eames makes a mad grab for his totem. Relaxes when he feels the sharp edges of his poker chip. What a weird fucking dream, he thinks. He hasn’t had one in years. He doesn’t realize he’s shaking until Arthur clasps his fingers and holds them still. 

He goes to the bathroom to splash cold water on his face. When he looks up, there’s a mouth, curving like a scythe in the mirror. 

Eames presses his fingers to his face, heart stopping. That smile is not his.

His reflection raises a hand, slow and sinister, and places it on the glass.

Tap tap.

**Author's Note:**

> AN: I had a Riddler!Eames prompt in my folder, so I was like, why not? 
> 
> Summary quote is said by Jerome Valeska from the TV show Gotham.


End file.
